Saints Set of Six: Harsh yellow, scrum pushes and goalkicks

1. Saints' discipline.

In the immediacy of the post-match coach Paul Wellens cited his side’s discipline as being a costly factor in Friday’s defeat.

There were other factors - but the game did start to unravel on Matty Lees’ sin-binning midway through the second half.

In the 10 minutes that Saints were down to 12, the game turned around with Leigh grabbing two tries to nudge ahead.

On the night, Lees protested that the contact was on the shoulder/back of his victim Gareth O’Brien - a version that the Match Review Panel agreed with.

Although the panel gave Lees a caution for a first half challenge on Ben Nakubuwai, they cleared him of the sin-bin offence.

This will be bittersweet news for Saints, with the initial relief that he has not been banned being tinged with the disappointment that the yellow card effectively cost them the game.

And that feeling may be magnified, given it is the reverse of last week’s call on Leeds’ Ben Walters which had an equally negative impact on the outcome of the game.

This is sport - the officials do a tough job, and have to make the call in the blink of an eye and so are not infallible - and calls are supposed to even out.

2. Game management.

Saints were purring nicely for a significant first half spell on Friday night, with Agnatius Paasi making big yards, and James Roby and Morgan Knowles being strong and direct in the middle, allowing the brains trust to function. And all seemed to be going to plan when Jonny Lomax and Jack Welsby combined on the left, to ping a sublime cut out pass for Jon Bennison to make it 12-0.

It looked like Saints were going to cruise to a victory, and had Welsby inside flick to Lees stuck they would have been out of sight.

Having withstood that, Leigh got themselves back into the game - and you could hear the crunch of the hits from a monster pack of big hitters like Tom Amone, John Asiata, Ben Nakubuwai, Ava Seumanufugai and especially pocket dynamo Edwin Ipape.

Saints suddenly knew they were in a game, and once Josh Charnley got their opener the Leopards grew a leg.

It felt like Saints were playing to hang on, with the game ebbing and flowing with Leigh’s offload game and spreading of the ball testing them.

They had a limited number of good ball sets in the Leigh half, and never got on a roll - but when they did have some they failed to build any pressure with some poor ends to the sets.

Maybe they would have kept on turning up for each other in the last quarter, but the dam broke with the Lees’ yellow.

3. Pushing in rugby league scrums.

We had a rarity on Friday - with Saints winning a scrum against the feed. The tactic of pushing in the scrum is one being deployed to stop teams trapping the ball at the loose forward’s feet to try and get a penalty for offside. Leigh were not doing that, by the looks of it, but Saints still shoved them off the ball. They must have been watching videos of the Pontypool Front Row.

It does beg the question, if teams did that regularly, would it be outlawed?

After all scrums in the modern era are not really meant to be fair given there is an offending team who are meant to be punished for losing the ball or going into touch.

Even though it would get messy if it became a thing - the variety offered by a contest at the set piece should be welcomed to keep all on their toes.

4. T'Pau and the Leigh Leopards Experience.

At a time when IMG are looking for clubs to sell the game, take your hat off to Leigh for the way they have tried to make match nights a big event.

With Scouting for Girls in the first week and T’Pau last week they are at least trying to create a buzz.

Leigh may not be the biggest of towns but it is a proper rugby league hot-bed, and although plenty have spent the off-season scoffing at them - give credit where it is due.

They have a well-appointed stadium and have put together a decent team - so let’s hope they can build on the decent crowds (aided by large travelling contingents) in the first couple of weeks.

My only beef with them is those numbers on the kits. Red numbers are no good for my eyesight - especially when the press have been sent up to the gantry instead of the traditional press box.

One thing is for sure, the relegation battle will be interesting this year because if Leigh have fair luck with injuries they won’t be propping up the table come September.

5. Everyone wants the Saints scalp.

Saints are going to have to get used to this; teams raising their game and hitting them with everything. It goes with the territory of being World Club champions. Everyone wants their scalp.

Saints have had a run of unprecedented success - so although none of us are really used to losing a couple of games, (even if we did lose two on the spin in August) we have to put defeats into context.

The Saints End had already started doing the Wigan walk a few minutes before the final hooter, leaving the players in no doubt what some fans thought of that performance. It was cold, as well as disappointing.

The players are not Gods - they don't expect to be worshipped. 

Fans are invariably honest with their viewpoints  - they don't have to be diplomatic or sugar coat it. You pay your money, you can say your bit - and of course ask questions, debate it and analyse it.

Friday’s game was a collective loss - not down to one or two individuals so there's no need to look for whipping boys.

They lose together - just as they win together, including last month in Penrith and last September at Old Trafford.

The heroes aren't suddenly zeros after a couple of losses. But success is not a given, and neither is the adulation. 

6. Feet and inches.

Rugby league is a game settled on the tiniest of measurements sometimes.

For the second week running a goal kick, which would have made it a three-score lead, was missed - this time rattling the upright.

Now Tommy Makinson, who has put his hand up to take on this role, has booted some real pressure kicks in his career. Included in that list are plenty from further out than the one that curled into the upright on Friday.

Makinson must practise every range and angle possible so you trust him to plant his tee for that last conversion attempt in the optimum position, but to an untrained eye (understatement of the century) I cannot understand why he did not bring the ball back two yards to give himself a less acute an angle. It is not like Tommy’s kicks ever lack distance.

And while we are on Tommy, can we go into a seven-tackle set and ask if he was hard done to when chasing his kick up touchline and denied a clear run to the ball by the defender?